Red Like Roses
by StormyAngel12
Summary: With Ruby unconscious, there is no one else to explain what took place at the top of the CCT tower. This is the story of Team JNPR's search for their missing member, an interlude covering part of the missing gap between the Fall of Beacon, and Team RNJR's departure.
1. Chapter 1

So I know that the lyrics to this particular song (Red Like Roses Pt. II) were written with Ruby Rose and her mother in mind, but I had the good fortune to start watching RWBY after Volume Three had ended. When I finally stopped and listened to the lyrics of the song, I found them fitting eerily well to Jaune and Pyrrha. So much so in fact, that I assumed that that was who the lyrics were written for, and I was baffled as to why the song was played all the way back in Volume 1.

I've since discovered my error, but the idea that the song fits has stuck with me, so I wanted to share it. Then as I searched for a way to do that, I decided that it would work best to show you how the song lyrics described Jaune's feelings, and here we are.

Summary: Pyrrha is missing, assumed dead, but Jaune isn't sure what to believe. He leads the remaining members of team JNPR in a desperate effort to reach Beacon's CCT tower and discover the truth.

Disclaimer: I own neither RWBY, nor it's awesome songs, nor its tragic story, nor its beautiful struggle.

* * *

I couldn't take it couldn't stand another minute  
couldn't bear another day without you in it  
all of the joy that I had known for all my life  
was stripped away from me the minute that you died

Pyrrha was dead.

Ruby was unconscious. Recovering at home in Patch. Part of Jaune wanted to blame her and Weiss, did blame them, for failing to save Pyrrha. Yet Weiss was already gone to Atlas, and after the things she had told him that she had seen Ruby do...well, Jaune couldn't have asked his first friend at Beacon for more.

But it still hurt. Jaune still felt lost. The world was darker, colors were dimmer, and it felt as if the shadows would never leave. Shadows cast by the one that Jaune had lost.

 _to have you in my life was all I ever wanted_  
 _but now without you I'm a soul forever haunted_  
 _can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted_  
 _no way in hell that I can ever comprehend this_

"Jaune."

A voice. Not the one he wanted to hear. Jaune ignored it.

"Jaune, you need to eat."

Now he knew the voice. It was Nora. Something about her voice seemed... _off._ Oh. sounded serious.

"Ren made pancakes, and I didn't eat them all." She promised solemnly. Jaune refused to answer. "Please Jaune, we _need_ you."

"Go away." He replied, his response muffled by the pillow he was currently laying on face down. She seemed to understand him anyway.

"Jaune..." Nora replied. The pain he could hear in her voice roused him to sympathy at least. He knew how that felt.

"I'll be up soon." Jaune lied, lifting his head up and looking at Nora. The sunlight fell through the window at an angle, casting shadows so that Jaune couldn't see Nora's face.

"Why is it so dark?" Jaune asked. Nora sighed.

"Because you've been asleep all day!" Nora replied. Jaune felt a moment of surprise, but then he realized that there was no particular reason to get up anymore. Typically he would be heading up to the roof at this hour for his lessons with-

Jaune let his head fall back down onto the pillow, willing himself to sleep once more. He felt more than heard Nora give up and leave the room. He didn't blame her for trying, and some small part of him felt bad for failing her and Ren like this. Jaune just couldn't find the energy to face the world right now. Walking about Vale, trying to be of use despite the blaring absence in their team...that was the nightmare. Jaune would take sleep over that any day.

 _I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone_  
 _I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong_  
 _how could you leave me when you swore that you would stay_  
 _now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single effing day_

Vale was recovering...slowly. The grimm incursion had thrown the kingdom's defenses into disarray, and the division of forces in an early attempt to save Beacon had allowed the grimm to end up hurting them more than they would have otherwise. Hunters and Huntresses were working round the clock to cull the grimm hordes, buoyed up by supporting Atlasian soldiers (who were stranded until they could be airlifted out) and whatever Dust could be scraped together. Things were under control, but it looked like there would be an increased grimm presence near the city for some time to come.

In such a state of affairs, every able hand was needed to help out. Ren and Nora had covered for him at first, and Jaune had been given some leeway due to the circumstances, but even he couldn't sleep through the work that needed doing.

It was awkward. Jaune didn't have a partner anymore, so he was the odd man out in most of the jobs they were assigned. Almost everyone else worked in pairs if not teams. The constant camaraderie hurt, not because it was bad or wrong, but because it was a reminder of the missing half of his partnership. Before too long it was obvious that Jaune was in no condition to work with the other huntsmen and he found himself reassigned to a simple laborers job. Ren and Nora looked pained, but they couldn't deny he wasn't keeping up.

Jaune actually found that he felt better when he _didn't_ work with Ren and Nora. They didn't push him to talk and they shielded him from a lot of attention, but their mere presence was a reminder that team JNPR would never be complete again.

"Hey buddy, you gonna finish that?" One of the other workers asked, pointing at his sandwich. Jaune realized that he had zoned out. He was sitting on a pile of rubble with the rest of the clean-up crew taking lunch. He had taken the sandwich but had yet to even take a bite. He must have looked quite a sight just sitting there staring at it.

Suddenly Jaune felt a strong and irrational anger. At the worker asking for his sandwich. At the city for demanding his labor. At Pyrrah. Why? Why did she have to go and fight that woman? How could she leave him behind like this? That anger was the first strong emotion he had felt in a long while, and he felt himself latch onto it like drowning man to a rock. It felt good to _feel_ again, even if it was only anger.

"Yeah," He replied gruffly, taking a large bite out of the sandwich. The other guy shrugged and moved on, but Jaune was suddenly overwhelmed with hunger, realizing how little he had eaten over the last two days. He scarfed down the whole sandwich, and managed to convince someone to give him another one before he went back to work.

He had the work done in an hour, using the aura that Pyrrha had helped him find. After that he was reassigned back to working with the huntsman crews.

 _It's like a movie but there's not a happy ending_  
 _every scene fades black and there's no pretending_  
 _this little fairy tale doesn't seem to end well_  
 _theres no knight in shining armor who will wake me from the spell_

Jaune ran fast, his mind working furiously. They hadn't found a body. He had hardly had the time to hear their reply and he was off, shooting out the doors and working his way down the path towards Beacon.

"Jaune!" he heard a voice call. He sped up. He was burning through his aura, he was running so fast.

Suddenly a green _blur_ landed directly in front of him. Jaune tripped and rolled, all his momentum bleeding off in short harsh impacts with the ground. It was only when he rolled to a stop that he realized he was rolling _with_ someone. With Ren. Ren had him pinned.

"Jaune, wait for just five seconds." His teammate rushed the words out of his mouth so fast, he could have been Nora. Jaune paused.

"She could be alive, Ren." He replied, out of breath. He was afraid Ren would deny it, but he saw the look in Ren's eyes. He wasn't going to disagree, but they both knew the truth.

The truth. No, merely what they _thought_ was true. They had assumed that Pyrha would find her way back to Vale on her own if she was alive. Given the circumstances, they had had to assume...

But there had been an excursion to test the grimm level at Beacon and they had _not_ found a body. Plenty of bodies, yes, but not _hers._ With the amount of grimm swarming the school, that didn't mean much, but she was _Pyrrah Nikos_ , damn it, and if anyone could survive in that fallen place it would be her. Jaune needed to get there imm-

"We're coming with you," Ren said. Jaune's brain failed him for a second and he stared at Ren, frozen.

"You're not going to try and stop me?" His shock was plainly evident, but Ren just shook his head. Behind them Nora finally caught up, using her aura to compensate for running hard.

"Of course we're coming with you Jaune," She said in a tone that implied he was being silly. "We're a team."

"A team." Jaune repeated dumbly. He looked to Ren, who nodded sharply.

"A team." Ren repeated. Firmly.

 _I know you didn't plan this_  
 _you tried to do what's right_  
 _but in the middle of this madness_  
 _I'm the one you left to win this fight_

Trying to cross the school grounds was madness. Grimm wandered to and fro, and they could already see that they would have a hell of a fight on their hands in order to get very far at all.

"Where do we look first?" Ren asked.

"Ooh, ooh," Nora whispered. "The kitchen!" Ren and Jaune both turned their skeptical gazes on her.

"What?" Nora replied with a pout. "She has to eat sometime. She'll be sure to have made pancakes!"

Jaune smiled at Nora's attempt at levity. The joke _was_ getting a bit old, but these were trying times for everyone. At least Nora was still trying.

He believed that Pyrrha could be alive, and what Nora said made sense, but he could tell that neither of his teammates really expected to find Pyrrha. For his sake though, they were acting as if they did. Jaune might have been annoyed at being treated so carefully, but he was cheerfully determined to prove them wrong. They wouldn't mind.

"No, I think we should head for the CCT tower." Jaune replied. "That's the last place that we know where she was after all."

Ren and Nora tactfully refrained from describing their odds of survival, which were low at best. The three of them watched for a little longer before slipping out of the treeline to try and penetrate the grimm wandering patterns, which seemed so oddly similar to patrols. Jaune certainly hadn't seen the grimm move that way before.

Jaune wasn't certain why Pyrrah had been so determined to fight that woman, but he knew that she would not have been dissuaded easily. If she was hiding out anywhere, it would be in that broken tower.

 _red like roses_  
 _fills my head with dreams and finds me_  
 _always closer_  
 _to the emptiness and sadness_  
 _that has come to take the place of you_

"Ruby, is that you?" Nora's voice was ecstatic. Jaune heard a faint reply on Nora's scroll, but was too distracted by a sudden turning in his stomach to hear his friend's response.

They had tried their best to sneak their way into the school, but Grimm were attracted to negative emotions, and Jaune was a thoroughly swirling mass of them. He only got worse the closer they grew to the tower, and before long they were fighting merely to escape the school. The only reason they had even made it out alive was their familiarity with the grounds which had allowed them to give the grimm the slip by escaping up a vertical cliffside. Fortunately, the Nevermores and Griffins weren't a problem. They had been the first targets of the Hunters and Huntresses counter assault team, since they could be particularly dangerous.

The dragon thing was still frozen on the tower, of course.

Jaune would never have made it out of there without his team, for which cause he was extremely grateful that they had tagged along with him. The fact that they had failed to make any progress frustrated Jaune. He had hoped to have good news for Ruby by the time she contacted them.

Ruby though...She had been _there_ at the tower. Not long after Pyrrha had sent him off to Vale according to Weiss. The last time Jaune had seen her she had been out cold, carried in her uncle's arms on her way home to Patch. Part of Jaune wished that he had gone with her, to find out what she knew. Perhaps she had seen Pyrrha dodging away when the invincible girl finally realized the fight was lost? Weiss had said that Ruby fought with the dragon grimm alone, so Pyrrha _must_ have gotten away before that.

A small part of Jaune knew that there was little hope Pyrrha had survived. That the chances were infinitesimally small. That was the part that turned his stomach. The same part that understood Ruby's unique ability to destroy that hope with a single sentence.

"Jaune," Ren said. "Ruby wants to talk to you." He handed over the scroll, with a highlighted portrait of Ruby on the screen. The bottom of the scroll read "local area only" as it had ever since the CCT went down. Setting that up had only taken a day or so, but apparently the receiver in Patch had taken a little longer to set up, since they hadn't had ready facilities for it

"Hey Ruby," "Hey Jaune," They both spoke at the same time. An awkward silence followed as each waited for the other to speak first. Idly Jaune noticed again that Ruby had red hair just like Pyrrha. It was an unfortunate reminder of the reason Jaune had wanted to talk to her. Finally, Ruby spoke up again.

"So...Nora said you guys went to Beacon?" She asked. Jaune nodded his head, even as he knew she couldn't see it.

"We were looking for Pyrrha." He said softly, unable to pretend he felt any kind of confidence. All he had ever had was hope. He heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Jaune...I," Ruby sounded like she was starting to cry. Suddenly Jaune felt a pain in his chest, as if there was a fist squeezing down around his heart. He waited with dread for Ruby to finish. "I'm so sorry, I didn't make it in time. Pyrrha, she...she..."

Jaune knew what Ruby was going to say, and he realized that he didn't want to hear her say it.

" _No_." Jaune whispered.

"Wha- What?" Ruby hiccuped, clearly distraught. "Did you just say-"

"I said no, Ruby," Jaune replied more firmly this time. "She's alive, I know it. They never found a body."

"Jaune, they never found a body because...I saw...she was shot through the heart with an arrow!" Ruby cried, clearly too upset by having to describe her friend's death to keep her temper. Jaune felt himself break into a cold sweat. Ren and Nora were giving him worried looks.

"You didn't-You didn't see what you thought you did." Jaune replied, desperately clinging to whatever hope he could. Ruby wouldn't lie, no, but surely she could be mistaken. "Maybe she survived. The arrow might have missed her heart and then she healed it with her aura after it regenerated."

"Jaune-" Ren stared to say something, reaching his hand out towards the scroll. Jaune knocked it away.

"I don't think..." Ruby replied hesitantly. Jaune cut her off again.

"No. How would you know? You were too busy fighting some stupid GRIMM!" By the end, Jaune was practically screaming at the scroll. Ruby had fallen silent, muffling her tears, and Ren and Nora looked absolutely stunned. They had never seen Jaune yell at anyone in anger, let alone Ruby.

Finally, Ruby spoke, her voice sad and quiet.

"I don't really remember fighting the grimm, but I do remember what I saw before that. I'm sorry Jaune...she's gone." And Ruby hung up the scroll. Jaune felt something on his face and realized that he was crying.

"We have to go back," Jaune sobbed. Ren and Nora exchanged another one of those looks that he knew meant they were worried about him. "Didn't you hear her? Pyrrha's been injured. She could need our help!" The worried look on their faces didn't disappear, but it was tempered by a sudden understanding. Seeing it in their eyes, that they understood his desperation was almost unbearable. Jaune looked away to the empty place where Pyrrha surely would have sat had she been there. He had to find her before it was too late.

 _I know you're broken down by anger and by sadness_  
 _you feel I left you in a world that's full of madness_  
 _wish I could talk to you if only for a minute_  
 _make you understand the reasons why I did it_

"Mr. Arc, may I have a minute of your time?" The clear precise tones of Glynda Goodwitch cut through Jaune's tumultuous thoughts as he sat on the steps in the city plaza. The same steps that had broken apart as the first breach into one of the four kingdom's capital cities in decades. Because of that woman named Cinder Fall.

Jaune still wasn't talking to Ruby, although she had called his scroll multiple times. But he had gotten more of the details of what she claimed to have seen from Ren and Nora. It was frustrating to realize that the mastermind behind all of this, the fall of Beacon, the grimm incursion, the _murder_ of Penny and Ozpin and _Pyrrha_ , had been sitting beneath their very noses the entire time.

"I'll take it by your silence that I may," Glynda continued, seating herself beside him, somehow managing to do so in a way which did nothing to diminish her rather intimidating presence.

"I'm sorry, Professor Goodwitch," Jaune replied in a voice roughened by tears. "I'm distracted easily these days."

"And who wouldn't be," Glynda replied lightly. "A very common affliction, I assure you."

"Did you want to talk to me about anything in particular?" Jaune asked, hoping to move the conversation along so that he could get back to his thoughts.

"Indeed Mr. Arc," Glynda responded. "I had heard about your little trip to Beacon." Jaune grimaced. So, it was about that.

"You don't understand-" Jaune began.

"But I do," Glynda responded. "Do you think I don't hope to go back to Beacon and find Professor Ozpin in that tower calmly drinking his coffee?" Jaune was struck by that observation, the parallels that she so easily and correctly drew, as she continued. "After all, the only _witness_ to his death I have is _you_ , and you merely saw the woman leaving the battle. What reassurance do I have that she wasn't fleeing my powerful colleague?"

"There's no way Ozpin would have let her run away." Jaune replied. "She had to be stopped." Abruptly, Glynda turned and looked Jaune straight in the eyes.

"Precisely."

Jaune made the connection instantly.

"That's different." He responded quickly. "Pyrrha was-"

"Was exactly the kind of person who would give their life for others, even if the situation was beyond desperate." Glynda cut in. "One might even say _especially_ then. She knew what she faced, and she did so willingly in the hope that she might be able to save even a single life." Jaune couldn't reply, still processing her words. With a sharp nod, Glynda stood, her goal accomplished for the moment.

"You might want to think about why she saved _your_ life, Jaune." And with that parting shot, Glynda Goodwitch was gone. Jaune sat silently, reminded of all that Pyrrha had been. The _person_ who she had been, in addition to the loss he had grown familiar with through the last five days. That sorrow had almost come to overshadow his memory of her as she had been. It had prevented him from understanding _why_ Pyrrha made the choice that she did.

 _I wanna tell you that you're all that ever mattered_  
 _want you to know that for eternity I'm shattered_  
 _I tried so hard just to protect you but I failed to_  
 _and in a prison of abandonment I've jailed you_

Jaune couldn't sleep. The truncated team JNPR's little expedition to Beacon two days previous had failed miserably, and they still hadn't come up with an alternative way to look for Pyrrha.

That wasn't completely true. All of them had thought of flying in to the top of the tower with a bullhead. Unfortunately, they also recognized that their chances of being allowed to borrow one on what would correctly be viewed as a suicide mission was not good.

Given that they were forced to approach via the ground, Ren and Nora seemed to think they should search the other buildings, which were more easily accessible. Jaune felt confident though that Pyrrha would be at that tower. He needed to get _there_ , to find her.

Their discussions had ended up going in circles, and they had called it a night in order to see if they might have any better ideas the next morning before they made their second attempt.

Slipping out of the room he currently shared with Ren and Nora, Jaune worked his way through the streets of Vale. Vale was hardly a sleepy city even before the recent crises, but things were slowing down as the recovery proceeded steadily. Beacon seemed to be attracting new grimm, with the standing theory being that they were drawn to that giant dragon thing perched on the tower, but Vale at least was starting to return to normalcy.

Or as close to normalcy as a world without Pyrrha could get. Jaune didn't really care, he was just grateful there weren't a bunch of people to watch him as he reached his destination.

Standing in a small abandoned square, Jaune pulled his scroll out and set it to play a recording. A long time back, when Pyrrha had been training him for the Vytal Festival, they had realized that she might not always be free to give him instructions. So naturally Pyrrha had recorded her instructions for Jaune without telling him until she had already done it. Jaune hadn't had to use them before the tournament, and then with all that happened...well. He needed to train, and he couldn't do it without his partner now, could he?

"Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced. Follow these instructions." Jaune readied himself, even as he felt moisture in his eyes at the familiar voice, realizing he had almost forgotten it.

"Shield up." Pyrrha's voice rang out from the scroll, sudden and sharp. Jaune hastily raised his shield up.

"Keep your grip tight." Tightening his grip on his sword as instructed, Jaune found himself falling easily into the standard pose which Pyrrha had mercilessly drilled into him.

But not _too_ easily.

"Don't forget to keep your front foot forward." Grumbling to himself he slid his left foot forward into the proper position. Pyrrha always was such a stickler on his stance.

"Ready? Go." She cried. Jaune stepped forward with his right foot, pivoting on his left foot whilst cutting at the empty air with his sword and issuing forth a brief yell.

"Again!" Stepping with his left foot this time Jaune rent the air with a horizontal slice.

"And again." Turning rapidly, Jaune lost his footing on the uneven stone, falling to the ground with a hard land on his butt. His aura cushioned the fall, but he shook his head at himself as he failed to complete the routine.

His attention was quickly drawn back to the scroll where Pyrrha was...giggling?

"-assuming you aren't _cheating_ , we can take a break." Jaune felt confused until he realized that Pyrrha had accounted for how much the set would cost him physically. He hadn't even completed it, and already he was panting.

"I know this can be frustrating..." Pyrrha's voice continued. "...and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount," Jaune couldn't help but snort at that. She understood him too well.

"But I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves. You've grown so much since we started training...and I know this is just the beginning."

Jaune couldn't help but wonder how she had come to think so highly of him. Jaune had certainly never received such encouragement anywhere else. Then there was a pause, and Jaune looked closer to the scroll to see Pyrrha had looked to the side, and seemed to be struggling to say something.

"Jaune, I-I..." He leaned in, breathless, even as she seemed to suddenly find her confidence again.

"I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune." And the video froze as Jaune stared at it, overwhelmed with emotion. Pyrrha had broken that promise, she had sent him to Vale while she searched out a fight that almost certainly could have ended in her death. How could she do that, yet say this with such conviction?

 _I never planned that I would leave you there alone_  
 _I was sure that I would see you when I made it back home_  
 _and all the times I swore that it would be okay_  
 _now I'm nothing but a liar and you're thrown into the fray_

The remaining members of Team JNPR worked their way through the woods to Beacon. They avoided grimm to conserve their Dust and aura, but still had to fight a few of the monsters here and there. Jaune was glad they had loaded up with dust magazines for their weaponry before they came back to try and find Pyrrha again. It had cost a lot, given the current shortage, but they would have missed them.

"Jaune," Ren called out. Jaune paused, curious as to why Ren had stopped him when they were almost to their destination.

"Listen, we need to talk." Jaune frowned, but nodded as he walked back to where Ren had paused, Nora cheerily waved their way before jumping up a tree for a good vantage point to keep an eye out for grimm.

"What's the matter, Ren?" Jaune asked. Ren gave him a concerned look.

"It's you, Jaune." He replied with a sigh. "With every step we take closer to Beacon, you grow more...well, negative." Jaune flinched instinctively. Even the youngest of children knew that grimm were attracted to strong negative emotions. If Jaune was really behaving as Ren said, then in all likelihood they could expect every grimm in the area to swoop in on them as they neared the tower. That was part of why they had had so much trouble the last time they made the attempt. Jaune had hoped that he would be better this time. Apparently not.

"That's not...goood." Jaune allowed, rolling the word as he thought. "But what exactly do you want to do about it?" There were only so many ways to deal with negative emotions after all, and Jaune was not exactly good at any of them. Certainly not good enough to deal with them under _these_ circumstances. Ren looked a bit sheepish as he shrugged and answered Jaune.

"I thought maybe we could...talk about things?" Ren replied with a shrug. Jaune literally felt his jaw drop.

"What?" He asked, stunned. Ren seeking out a discussion on Jaune's feelings was like...like Ruby throwing away perfectly good cookies. It just didn't happen.

Part of that was because Jaune regularly sought Ren out for advice on his own though, so it wasn't _completely_ unfamiliar. Jaune just hadn't expected Ren to ever _ask_ him for an update.

"You know," Ren replied in a sheepish tone. "Things like: why are you so focused on the tower?" Jaune felt a brief flare of emotions as Ren brought the subject up, fear and anger warring with guilt and sorrow. None of those were positive emotions, and if they continued on without adressing them, the grimm would probably swarm them as soon as they broke the tree line.

"I'm not..." Jaune started, then stopped and frowned thoughtfully. What _was_ he feeling? How did he _not know_?

"I don't think I even know how I feel about it, Ren." Jaune replied. "I mean...I know I'm upset about what happened...I'm pretty angry actually. I'm just not sure why I feel that way about the tower in particular."

Ren nodded as if he knew exactly how that felt, and maybe he did.

"I understand," He replied. "You never did tell us exactly what happened there. I mean, how did you and Pyrrha get separated in the first place?" Jaune froze. He hadn't told them about the weird rooms underneath Beacon because he'd never had an explanation for it from Pyrrha or Ozpin. But that had easily carried over to the rest of the night, such that only Professor Goodwitch really knew that Pyrrha had sent him flying off to Vale, and that was because she had needed to know what had happened to Ozpin.

She hadn't been surprised about Beacon's basement, but had refused to entertain any questions on the matter either, which had handily contributed to Jaune's general frustration.

"Jaune?" Ren asked in obvious concern. Jaune shook his head slowly.

"I don't think..." he replied. "I can't tell you Ren. It's not really something I want to talk about." Ren's focus seemed to narrow in on Jaune at that moment, and he felt inexplicably nervous that Ren would figure out what he was hiding. About the kiss...and the flight to Vale.

That last thought felt like a knife in the chest, and Jaune realized why it was that he felt so confused on the matter. He was mad at _Pyrrha_. The tower was just a really big reminder of what she had done.

Suddenly Jaune felt it all click into place, and like a dam collapsing, all of the pent up emotion broke loose. He was overcome with anger, and ground his teeth.

"If you're sure..." Ren began to say.

"I'm sure." Jaune replied firmly, cutting him off perhaps a little too harshly. "I think I need a minute actually. Would you mind joining Nora?" Ren nodded reluctantly then followed their absent teammate into the trees. Jaune waited for him to exit visual range before slamming his fist against the tree right next to him.

Jaune gave himself a few more seconds to just _dwell_ in his rage, then wrestled it under control. He might be mad at Pyrrha, but that was an entirely separate issue from finding he if she was still alive. To do that, he couldn't afford to bring the grimm down on their heads.

With a sigh, Jaune settled down to do one of his least favorite things. One of those things Pyrrha had _insisted_ on, ironically. Meditating.

 _this bedtime story ends with misery ever after_  
 _the pages are torn and there's no final chapter_  
 _I didn't have a choice I did what I had to do_  
 _I made a sacrifice but forced a bigger sacrifice on you_

"Jaune," Ren sounded very serious, so Jaune paused his reconnoitering and turned to look where his teammate was pointing. Off in the distance he could see the Goliaths. They were massive elephantine grimm, and unfortunately they were far beyond his team's power to slay. They were marching through the central path towards the tower, clearly planning to settle in. Jaune briefly felt surprised that they were already this far into the area.

"We need to beat those things to the tower." Ren continued.

"How long do you think we have?" Jaune asked, mentally calculating the odds...Luckily, they had already crossed more of the campus than they had the last time. Jaune's meditation had not truly set his emotions at ease, but it had at least made them less volatile. That, combined with an approach working their way _through_ the buildings on their way, helped to keep them from drawing down too many grimm on their heads. They had only fought Beowolves and Boarbatusks thus far, likely because the other grimm couldn't keep up with their running combat.

Unfortunately, the elephantine grimm were imposing something of a deadline, because they would be too strong to beat, and likely too smart to slip past.

"It will be close," Ren replied, waving his hand in a so-so gesture. "We'll have to augment, which means we'll have less aura for whatever's inside." Jaune nodded, eyeing the tower with a flash of rage. Meditating had helped him to control his emotions, but he hadn't had enough time to work through them, and every reminder was like another stab in the chest.

"Retreat won't be an option either, so that could be pretty bad." Jaune paused as he had an idea. "You remember that office they had on the second floor?"

"What the secretary's office?" Ren replied in amusement.

"Yeah, that one." Jaune affirmed. "What do you think are the odds that we could hole up in there and let our aura regenerate?"

Ren seemed to be considering it when Nora, who was supposed to be watching their rear approach, suddenly ran by. She was firing her grenades haphazardly back behind her, barely missing Ren. Ren, out of long habit apparently, automatically sidestepped the projectile.

"Grimm coming, better leave now!" She cried shortly, before speeding on past them. They turned back to spot a massive horde of grimm flooding towards them with nice, sharp, _spinning_ Boarbatusks in the lead. Sprinting to catch up with Nora, Ren shouted his reply to Jaune.

"We'll have to hope that will work!" And Jaune nodded, then turned his head to Nora.

"What did you do!?" He shouted, trying to be heard over the assorted grimm swelling towards them.

"Who knew they didn't like soda!" Nora yelled back. Jaune spared a moment's thought to consider Nora's signature wackiness, but then proceeded to focus all of his energy on fleeing towards the tower. A few grimm in their path met a very quick end as Jaune and Ren slashed through them on their way to the doors. Jaune nearly faceplanted when his sword caught on a beowolf's armor, but some aura helped to cut through it and he slowed only temporarily.

They were almost to the tower, and they still had plenty of aura left. Jaune and Ren had been planning a more roundabout route, but if the grimm were already stampeding, there was little point.

Finally reaching the steps of the CCT, a large Nevermore like the one team RWBY had fought on the day of initiation swooped down and blocked their path. It screeched its horrible cry at them as a flap of its wings sent massive steel-hard feathers flying towards them. Jaune couldn't help but feel a moment of resentment towards the huntsmen who had missed the creature. _Guess they didn't get_ all _of the flying grimm._

 _I know you've lived a nightmare_  
 _I caused you so much pain_  
 _but baby please don't do what I did_  
 _I don't want you to waste your life in vain_

Their teamwork served them well in this instance as Ren and Nora immediately fell into a line behind Jaune. He raised his shield and reinforced his strength with aura. He felt an impact as he successfully blocked the feather, the rest of which flew further behind them and actually impacted the mass of grimm behind their position. This had the added benefit of temporarily halting those grimm as they piled up, even though it still left team JNR with a nice, big old Nevermore to deal with. The Nevermore immediately launched itself off the ground, rising parallel to the CCT with every flap of its wings.

"What do we do?" Ren said breathlessly. Jaune felt a momentary flashback to their first match of the tournament, and was tempted to cry 'retreat!' but reigned himself in with a tinge of nostalgia. The situation really wasn't all that different, with a nevermore "sniping" and a grimm assault. Too bad they couldn't count on a handy thunderstorm any time soon. The sky was way too clear for fall weather.

"We have to kill it to enter the tower, retreat is not an option any longer." Jaune replied. "Nora, if I launch you, can you ground that thing?" Nora smirked.

"I'd love to try." She replied with a smirk. Jaune nodded, that was the best he could ask for.

"Great," He replied. "Ren, keep an eye on our flank."

Not even pausing to hear Ren's affirmation (time was of the essence due to the approaching Goliaths) Jaune positioned himself in a crouch with his shield parallel to the ground. Nora jumped, and he leaped with Aura even as she fired off her grenade launcher, giving her just enough lift to soar above the Nevermore.

At the apex of her leap, Nora fired again, aiming so as to direct her at the Nevermore. As she dove she transformed Magnhild into a hammer, planning to strike the Nevermore on its wing joint in order to cripple it. She fell fast and hard, but at the last second the bird shifted, and her swing missed entirely.

"Ren!" Jaune called, directing him to catch his partner, who was now in an uncontrolled tumble due to the massive swing of her hammer. Jaune would catch her himself, except that he was nowhere near as practiced at doing so as her partner. Ren caught his meaning and abandoned his figh with several smaller grimm. Jaune turned to engage them, desperately trying to come up with another plan.

He took a moment to eye the Nevermore, when to his horror, it unleashed a _second_ round of feathers.

Seeing that Nora, still in the air, and Ren were in the direct path of a feather, Jaune abandoned his effort to stall the ever closer Beowolves and Ursa. He ran two steps before leaping towards their position. As Nora landed with an impact he could _feel_ , he saw that he wasn't going to make it in time.

Jaune was forced to lift his shield to block an incoming feather and in a moment of desperation he _threw_ his sword like a boomerang. It was a last ditch attempt to knock away the feather that would hit Ren and Nora. Neither of them were prepared for it, tumbling through the air as Nora had been, and focused on catching her without taking injury from her hammer as Ren had been. He felt a flash of regret that he had ever insisted on this mission, even as his stomach twisted in guilt at the thought of abandoning Pyrrha.

Jaune saw that his sword had gone too far wide, and he watched in ever rising horror as a large steel shaft dove towards the only remaining members of his team. Then, suddenly, there was a flash of red. Jaune blinked in confusion as the large feather hit the ground. Somehow, in the place where Ren and Nora had stood, there were only rose petals fluttering through the air.

 _red like roses_  
 _fills my head with dreams and finds me_  
 _always closer_  
 _to the emptiness and sadness_  
 _that has come to take the place of you_

The Nevermore screeched in rage at the denial of its victims. Twice it had fired and struck only its fellow grimm. it swooped away to circle the tower for another strafing run.

"I hope you don't mind, Jaune." Ruby Rose declared with a cheeky grin as she set both Ren and Nora down on their feet, the two of them looked a little woozy. Ruby's speed was no joke. If it weren't her own semblance, then she probably wouldn't have been able to handle it herself. "But I have an ongoing disagreement with Nevermores."

"Ruby- How did- Where-" Jaune said, stopping and starting as different questions ran through his head. Ruby simply grinned and shook her head.

"Not the time guys," She pointed back behind Jaune at the pincushioned yet slowly regrouping horde of endless grimm. "Ren, that's yours. Buy us two minutes."

"Two minutes I think I can handle." Ren responded wryly, reloading StormFlower with a special set high density Dust rounds. He walked toward the grimm calmly, almost smiling. Ruby's mere presence was heartening, even to Jaune. They could not have needed her help more than they did that very moment.

"Nora," Ruby called, catching Nora's eye, "I need you to launch us." Nora looked confused for a moment, before a devilish smile crept onto her face. She grinned and gave Ruby a thumbs up pose as the three of them drew together. The Nevermore was drawing closer, and Jaune shook his head at the flaw in Ruby's plan.

"Ruby, Nora's not equipped-"

"She is," Ruby cut in, firing Crescent Rose offhand at the horde in its folded down position. She turned towards Jaune, and silver eyes met blue. "Do you trust me?"

 _I'm sorry Jaune...she's gone._ Her words echoed through his head again, and he choked on his almost automatic 'yes'. Ruby wasn't asking about Pyrrha, but he couldn't help being reminded of who _Ruby_ was, and how much he had trusted her before this whole fiasco. There was a reason Teams RWBY and JNPR got along so well, and it had had more to do with their team leaders than anyone suspected.

"I do," He replied finally. And Ruby seemed to realize what that had cost him as she offered him a sad smile.

"I know you're here for Pyrrha, Jaune," She began, then turned her eyes back skyward as they widened imperceptibly.

"Jump!" She shouted. Instinctively Jaune jumped, surprised as Ruby hit him midair and directed his shield downward. Her voice whispered in his ear, "Augment your arm," which he did accordingly even as she placed her feet on the back of the shield.

Jaune couldn't see completely around the shield, and things were moving so fast he didn't have the time to process it, but he felt an _enormous_ push on his shield. A strange sound, sort of like a gunshot, rang out. It sounded like metal striking metal. Jaune looked down as he flew upward, the impact separating him from Ruby even as she too flew higher. He saw Nora finish a swing of Magnhild, but she seemed to be striking...above her. His eyes widened as he realized what Ruby had done.

She had had _Nora_ strike the shield with her hammer from beneath them. It was a miracle they were still alive.

They rose swiftly, passing the height of Nora's earlier jump and then reaching about twice that height. Gravity finally began to pull them back downward, and Jaune was stunned as he saw that Ruby had positioned the impact of Nora's strike with his shield so that they were in a position to hit the Nevermore before it could fire off its steel feathers once again. That was no easy feat.

Ruby grinned at Jaune from about ten feet to his right. They were fairly well positioned to intercept the Nevermore, with either one of them bound to hit it if it tried to dodge the other. Slaying Nevermores was always a problem of pinning them down in order to apply the right amount of force. Ruby's Crescent Rose and Jaune's Crocea Mors (with aura augmentation), were perfect for applying that force, but were poorly suited for pinning the bird down on their own.

Fortunately, the grimm had to obey the laws of physics, unlike those who had Dust and Aura, and there was no way for the Nevermore to avoid both of them without crashing into either the tower, or the ground. Both of those options would leave the grimm at team RNJR's mercy. In effect, Ruby had just put the Nevermore in checkmate.

The grimm was old, and it appeared to recognize it's swiftly approaching demise. Apparently determined to at least take one of them with it, the Nevermore revealed its weaker flank to Ruby as it opened its maw and turned towards Jaune in a stunning display of aviation.

Jaune felt a moment of panic as he saw the massive hole towards which he was swiftly descending when he felt a sudden impact from...the air? Jaune was blown aside, tumbling wildly through the air and unable to observe what was happening until he was suddenly caught by Nora at the ground.

"Nice catch." He offered. Nora grinned happily and pointed over towards the entrance. Ruby hadn't been willing to let the Nevermore eat Jaune, which surprised no one. She had generated a slipstream like the day of their foodfight with her semblance by flying past the grimm. What suprised Jaune was that she had done this _in midair._

The slpistream slammed the Nevermore chest first into the side of the tower, and falling onto its back, it had been helpless to fend off the swift descent of Crescent Rose. Ruby had decapitated the creature as a landing strategy.

"We make a good team!" Nora crowed, ecstatic at their victory. Jaune couldn't help sharing the sentiment and he took a moment to admire Ruby's work. Unfortunately, the ground started shaking. _Right_ Jaune thought, _Big scary elephants coming right up._

 _you're not the only one who needed me I thought you understood_  
 _you were the one I needed and you left me as I always feared you would_  
 _would I change it if I could?_  
 _it doesn't matter how_  
 _the petals scatter now_  
 _every nightmare just discloses_  
 _It's your blood that's red like roses_  
 _and no matter what I do_  
 _nothing ever takes the place of you_

Ruby led the way inside the tower, slaughtering what few Beowolves there were since she had more aura left than any of the other three. They barely made it inside in time, but they managed to find protection from the Goliaths, which were far too large for even the CCT's doors.

"C'mon," Ruby called, leading them up the emergency stairs. Jaune made sure to close the door behind them. It wouldn't serve as much of an obstacle to a determined grimm, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

"Ruby," Jaune said, panting as he followed them into the stairwell. " _Thank you_ , really. But _how did you get here_?" They were all panting, even Ruby. She seemed to be conserving aura for grimm encounters, rather than healing her muscle exhaustion.

"I flew in of course." She replied as they climbed. "Dad has access to an old bullhead as a means of traveling to and from Patch, and the pilot agreed to take me here." She reached up to scratch her head. "He flew off the second he saw the Nevermore, so I'm not entirely sure how we're going to get out of here."

The remaining members of team JNPR stared at Ruby in dull amazement. They would have to marvel more some other time at the peculiar mix of combat specialist, tactical genius, and (sadly) lacking strategist that Ruby Rose was.

"But why are you here?" Nora asked petulantly. Apparently she was feeling impatient. Ruby smirked.

"Jaune was ignoring my calls," she replied primly. "So I cam to call on him in person!" With a nod at her out of place phrasing, she started pouting and pointed her finger at Jaune. "But none of you were in Vale! So I asked Glynda where I could find you."

Jaune grimaced. Glynda could probably guess. "And she told you?" Ruby shook her head.

"No, she sort of freaked out." She admitted. "Her face was really pale and she started muttering about 'idiotic boys' and 'think they're invincible'. I asked her what was going on, and she told me to absolutely _not_ go to Beacon. She said she would find you three and bring you to me."

Nora tilted her head. "So then..."

"I'm pretty sure she wanted me to figure it out." Ruby said with a nod. "Professor Goodwitch is awesome like that." Jaune spent a moment wondering what would have happened if Ruby hadn't come, or if she had come even one minute later...he shuddered, grateful to have been spared that fate. Looking up, he could see that Ruby was eyeing him with a concern.

"Jaune," Ruby began, her tone turning more serious. "I know that you're here for Pyrrha." Jaune cringed internally as he thought of the purpose that had brought them here. That had brought three more of his friends into danger, into the grimm infested and fallen CCT tower of Beacon.

"I know I said some things...things that you didn't want to hear," Ruby continued. "But that doesn't matter any more."

"It doesn't?" Jaune asked, suddenly perplexed. Ruby shook her head.

"What I saw-" She turned her head aside, and there was a haunted look in her eyes. Jaune realized that he hadn't even thought of how Ruby was handling things. He felt a pang of concern before the look passed, and she was back to normal. "Well, I can't be sure what happened. I did black out almost immediately." She looked up again. "If you're here for Pyrrha, then...well. I hope you find her."

Jaune felt a relief he couldn't explain. Somehow, being at odds with Ruby had thrown him off, and now that he knew he had her support, he felt...balanced again. Like something had been missing, but was back now.

"Thank you," Jaune replied. "And I'm sorry for- for yelling at you and-"

"Jaune," Ruby interrupted with a shake of her head. "It's ok." Then she smiled mischievously. "You can make it up to me some other time." He nodded, recognizing that she was going to spend all of his money on cookies. He turned to Ren and Nora.

"You too," He said. "I'm sorry for putting you through all this...for putting you in danger." Ren sighed, accepting his apology with a nod. Nora was shaking her head though.

"Jaune, Pyrrha was our teammate too." She scolded him. "Why should you apologize for leading us where we wanted to go anyway?" The other three blinked. Nora seemed unaffected by their surprise, simply patting Jaune on the back. "See? You're a _great_ leader."

"Well...thanks Nora." Jaune replied, feeling oddly uplifted and confused at the same time. That was Nora for you. He turned to look around, realizing that they had all simply stopped at the landing of the next floor. Following his gaze, Ruby seemed to draw herself in somehow, suddenly appearing more focused.

"C'mon team Junior!" Ruby yelled. "Let's see about searching this tower!"

 _red like roses_  
 _fills my head with dreams and finds me_  
 _always closer_  
 _to the emptiness and sadness_  
 _that has come to take the place of you_

The tower seemed to be completely empty of grimm. At first, Jaune took it as a good sign. Pyrrha must be clearing them out, or at least _someone_ had to. Then he realized his smaller grimm were still too large to fit the stairway doors. They could probably force their way inside, but without any people exuding negative emotions on the inside to motivate them, they hadn't bothered to do so yet.

That gave the four of them a lucky break, but it didn't mean Pyrrha was alive. It also didn't mean they could wait around forever. Ruby led the way.

They worked their way up, ever closer to the broken top of the empty tower. As they did Ruby grew more and more somber, and Jaune could tell that she was worried about him, and how he would react to what they might find. Jaune however, was growing more and more frustrated. Every empty floor. Every untouched room, and every locked door, locking in yet more empty rooms. They all failed to reveal the one person he had hoped to find. Pyrrha's chances of survival shrank with every door they opened.

As they climbed higher and higher, Jaune felt a pit form in his stomach. It grew larger as the hope he had felt seemed to wither away.

"Are you ok, Jaune?" Ruby asked him. Jaune could only shake his head, his lips pursed tightly.

They took a break near the top, and Jaune used the time to meditate. Or he tried to. The instant he looked inward and tried to evaluate how he felt, he was overcome by the utter chaos of his emotions. He was angry, he grieved, he hated. He was guilty and thankful and sorry and sad. Too much had happened in too little time. Ruby's forgiveness and help had helped him find a better balance, but he still felt...off. He already knew Pyrrha was gone, or at least not present, but some part of him kept expecting to find her _right there_ , working with the rest of his team to find their missing friend.

They moved on, continuing to work, although this time no one spoke as the searched the final three floors. They couldn't find the motivation.

As they approached the trapdoor leading to the back of Ozpin's office, which had become the top of the tower, they heard a large cacophony of noises. Ren took a look through the trapdoor before slamming it closed and backing up, readying his weapon.

"What is it?" Jaune asked him.

"Grimm." Was the reply. Which had to mean flying grimm, because they hadn't found a single broken door on the way up.

"What could possible be drawing them here?" Jaune cried, slamming his fist into the wall in frustration. Ruby gave him a perplexed look, before looking to Ren and Nora. They shook their heads, apparently frustrated.

"You mean you don't know?" She asked. Jaune frowned.

"Know what?!" he asked, exasperated. Did they know what was drawing the grimm in? Was it him? Was he really that negative?

"It's you Jaune." Ruby replied. "You're radiating so much negativity its attracting all of the grimm."

"Yes, I know I've been kind of depressed lately-"

"No, that's not what I mean." Ruby said with a shake of her head. Jaune rubbed his forehead,feeling the stirrings of a headache.

"What then? What did you mean?" He asked sharply.

"You're heartbroken." Ruby said softly. "It's a negative emotional state so powerful that you can't overcome it even with the happiest of surface emotions."

"So what, even if I was laughing, I would still be attracting grimm?" Jaune replied

"Could you truly laugh like you did before?" Ruby asked with a wry smile. Jaune's shoulders slumped as he realized that She was right. It was as if a part of him was missing...

Ruby closed her eyes, her voice growing somber in an almost frightening shift in tone. "Someone dear to you, someone irreplaceable, is gone. They're gone and you know that they're never coming back. You _need_ them, and they're never coming back. They abandoned you, perhaps not intentionally, but merely by doing what they thought was right. It's unfair, and it hurts, and there is a place inside you that will never truly be right again. It is empty, and a piece of your heart is gone."

Jaune felt tears in his eyes as he heard Ruby describe his sorrow, the _emptiness_ he felt, in perfect detail. It was as if she knew his emotions as well as he, as if she _felt_ them.

Hearing her describe it so well, Jaune recognized the gaping hole at the center of his very existence. It matched the hole in his team, and the hole in his life. It didn't make sense that he could continue walking and breathing without it. He understood now why he had been so desperate to believe that Pyrrha had survived. If there was even the slightest chance that she could come back. That he could be whole again, then he had to take the risk and look for her.

"How did you know?" Jaune whispered, his voice made rough from the anguish in his throat. Ruby offered him a smile, as she shook her head and met his teary-eyed gaze. A sweet, sad smile that Jaune would have never thought she was capable of making.

"I've been there Jaune." She replied. "It's where I found my Mother."

Jaune vaguely remembered hearing about Ruby's father, and now he realized why she never mentioned her mother, and neither did Yang.

The air was thick with silence. Jaune was still mulling over Ruby's words when something confused him. He latched onto it despeartely.

"Wait," He asked. "Doesn't that mean you're heartbroken too?"

"Yeeeaaah," Nora cut in. "Why is Jaune the only one attracting grimm like a negative gravity crystal?"

Ruby shook her head. "Now's not the time to explain. All you need to know for know is that I'm not attracting any grimm like Jaune is." She pointed towards the trapdoor, where the sounds of flying grimm had faded while they were talking. None of them had noticed, but they almost couldn't hearthe squawking Nevermores and Griffins any more.

Slowly, almost as if in a trance, Jaune walked to the trapdoor. The others followed him, readying their weapons, and he slowly eased it open.

The scene that greeted his eyes was terrible. Destruction wrought left and right, Jaune ignored it for the moment, pushing the trapdoor the rest of the way open to examine the skies.

Seeing that they were clear of any grimm in the immediate area, he stepped out and helped Ren through.

Ruby climbed up after Nora with Jaune's help. She immediately began to scan the clear blue skies, looking to spot the grimm who had been so close by not five minutes ago.

Almost immediately she spotted the reason the grimm had moved off. A number of bullheads flew through the air towards the tower, and Hunters and Huntresses clearly fought to defend them. Ruby could see dust explosions intermixed with the small flock of Griffins, and grimm fell out of the sky at a steady rate. Perplexingly, a large number of them seemed to fall out of the sky for no discernible reason.

"Professor Goodwitch is so cool!" Nora exclaimed, pointing at the very grimm whose fall had baffled Ruby. She felt a little silly as she realized what she had missed. Glynda was quite literally swatting them out of the air.

The bullheads were heading straight for the tower, and were likely only a few minutes out. It looked like they would be flying back to Vale.

Satisfied that the danger was taken care of, Ruby turned around to examine the top of the tower. To the side, perched against the tower, rested the head of the massive grimm creature that Qrow claimed that she had defeated. There were visible marks on its face that Ruby recognized as cuts from Crescent Rose, although she had no recollection of how they had gotten there. Despite the fact that it seemed to be alive still, it didn't move even in the slightest, and Ruby could see why the exact word Qrow had used was "frozen".

The ground around them was torn up in places, burned into slag or dented and scratched. Chunks of half melted gears rested all over the place, and Ruby could even see the tell-tale sign of several gears sliced by her scythe. Turning further she could see that the room was scarred all the way around. And in the center of it all sat Jaune.

Almost involuntarily she stepped forward, reaching out her hand with Jaune's name on her lips. Then she stopped, uncertain. Jaune seemed to notice though, and he revealed the object held so carefully in his hands.

It was Pyrrha's golden crown.

Ruby walked over to Jaune, even as Nora and Ren cheered on their approaching rescuers behind her.

"I always knew." Jaune said without explanation, but Ruby understood. He had been forced to acknowledge something that he was beginning to realize he had always known. She let him continue speaking uninterrupted. He needed to get it out.

"I was angry at her, you know?" He said with a dry chuckle. "She sent me away. Forced me to go. It was cruel, and I was so mad at her." He looked up at Ruby, his eyes dry and calm, but oh so soft.

"Then she died," He continued in a whisper. "And I would never have the chance to be mad at her again."

"You had to hope," Ruby replied, and he nodded. She knew the path he was walking, the steps she could take to make it easier for him. So she did.

"But now..." She prompted.

"But now that I can't hope," Jaune continued. "I have to learn to...to live without her."

"I'm so sorry Jaune." Ruby said at last. "I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough. Pyrrha was the best of us, and she fought for those she loved." She felt her eyes grow moist. "I only wish that she hadn't had to."

They were silent, and the roar of a bullhead coming in for landing engulfed them, Ren and Nora walking over to join them. Before they drew too close, Ruby heard Jaune whisper one last thing.

"Heartbreak...doesn't have to be a negative emotion, does it." He asked, looking up to Ruby. She smiled, a light in her silver eyes, and shook her head.

"No Jaune," Ruby replied with a surprised laugh, straining to be heard over the bullhead's roar. "No it doesn't!"


	2. Epilogue

They were a solemn group, riding in the back of the bullhead. Glynda herself had landed to escort them onto it, and the sharp glare she had given them, Jaune in particular, promised that there would be a long lecture when they were safe in Vale. Ruby, of course, got an almost-smile, since she had technically done as Professor Goodwitch had...very carefully _not_ asked her to do.

For now though, they were finally safe, and they could rest. Nora and Ren were seated, leaning their backs against the far wall, opposite Jaune and Ruby. None of them were particularly happy about the outcome of their self-appointed mission, but they would be hard-pressed to deny that they were at least satisfied with their efforts.

Jaune had felt something change in him the instant he saw Pyrrha's crown. It was incontrovertible proof that she was gone. There was no reason for her to have simply left it there.

The strangest thing though, was that he had felt something inside him ease as he recognized that he had _always_ known Pyrrha was gone. He felt that now he could accept it. He could finally lay her to rest.

Jaune was still sad, and still angry with his departed partner. But now...now he could accept that he would never have Pyrrha back. The hole she left could never be filled by anything or anyone else, but he was glad that she had left such a strong impression on his life. No longer did that emptiness and sorrow drive him into a frenzied search for what was missing.

"So," Jaune spoke up, breaking the silence. "What now?"

Ren and Nora exchanged a worried look. Ruby frowned.

"I'm not sure," The girl admitted without her usual cheeriness. "I think I have a lead on where to find Cinder, but..."

"Cinder?" Jaune queried, recognizing the name. "Wasn't that the woman who did all of this? Why would you want to find her?" Ruby's eyes grew out of focus for a moment, and she seemed to be remembering something. Her fists clenched on her lap and she spoke with a fervor in her voice that surprised Jaune.

"She needs to be _stopped_." Ruby replied, then after a brief pause. "I made a promise."

"Ruby..." Jaune said. "What could any of us do to help? We're just kids! We're not ready." For some reason Ruby flinched, before shaking her head.

"There isn't time to waste," She replied firmly. "The people that did this aren't just going to wait around for us to be trained. We have to do what we can _now_. Lives are at stake." Jaune and his teammates eyed ruby with surprise once more. They had always known the girl was deeper than her youth and innocence made her appear, but they had never expected the steel core of determination she was demonstrating for them now.

Jaune looked to Ren and Nora. They both seemed a little uncertain. He couldn't blame them. Chasing after the woman... _Cinder_ was not something he thought would end well. But even with the knowledge of her power in his very hands, he couldn't get rid of the desire to take her down.

"There's something I need to tell you guys," Jaune began, his eyes glued to the crown in his hands. "About...about Pyrrha."

"What is it Jaune?" Nora asked.

"Do you remember when Ozpin came for Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. Ruby shook her head of course, because she wasn't there, but Nora and Ren both remembered. It had been a peculiar time for Ozpin to call her away. And Nora and Ren were likely only just realizing that they never did get the full story out of Jaune. And so he told them.

"Well, it turns out that just beneath Beacon..."

* * *

"But what does it mean?" Ren asked. Jaune snorted in frustration.

"Beats me, I asked Pyrrha and her response was to..." Jaune blushed faintly before continuing, his voice sounding a bit strained. "er- send me flying off to Vale." Nora and Ren exchanged a knowing look and Jaune looked to Ruby to try and distract them from his accidental slip of the tongue.

To his surprise she looked really thoughtful. Seeing that he was watching her, she spoke up.

"That sounds a lot like something Uncle Qrow said to me when I woke up." She explained. "He told me that he had been going on special missions for Ozpin."

"Huh," Jaune said. "You know...you're uncle was one of the three people Ozpin told us to call for help."

"Really?" Ruby replied, clearly curious. "Who were the other two?"

"General Ironwood, and Professor Goodwitch." Jaune replied. The four teenagers all turned their heads towards the front of the bullhead, where their combat instructor was just barely visible in the co-pilot's chair. Jaune shook his head.

"You can forget about asking her," He said with frustration. "I already did when I _told_ her what happened. She won't be answering any of our questions."

"Pfah!" Nora threw her arms up in the air. "Teachers!" They all nodded together, acknowledging the sad truth known only to teenagers.

"What about your uncle Qrow, Ruby?" Ren asked her. Ruby shook her head, a vexed look on her face.

"I haven't seen him since I woke up." She complained. "I think he doesn't want to answer my questions, because my Dad told me he left not long after our little 'talk'" Jaune couldn't help but smile at the way Ruby held her fingers up and made air quotes when she quoted her father.

"Well what was this lead you mentioned then?" Jaune asked Ruby. She looked towards the cockpit to make sure no one was listening in to their conversation, then leaned forward.

"Haven," She whispered, before leaning back. "Uncle Qrow mentioned that the enemy's trail led there."

There was a moment of silence.

"So he _does_ want your help?" Jaune asked, uncertain. Ruby tilted her head and shrugged.

" _Maybe_?" she replied. "I get the feeling he knows I have to do something no matter what he says, so this way he at least knows what direction I'm headed."

"Well then how do you know it's not a lie? Maybe he 'told' you, just to send you somewhere safe?" Jaune asked her, wondering why she hadn't already worked that out. To his surprise, Ruby blushed. She even started playing with her fingers like she sometimes did when she got nervous.

"I, um, sort of have a reason to believe he thinks I could be helpful?" Ruby responded. The other three teenagers looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"No, really!" Ruby said, waving her hands frantically to get their attention. "He told me some...other stuff. I'm not really sure what it meant, and I'd rather not talk about it, but I'm certain it means I can be helpful." To her credit, she did sound much more certain this time.

"Well _that_ isn't vague." Nora said.

Jaune laughed, startled. Nora usually wasn't the sarcastic type. He appreciated her humor though.

"I think Uncle Qrow would have taken me with him if I hadn't been, well, recovering." Ruby replied. "He probably meant for me to follow after him."

"Ruby," he began, turning and meeting her silver-eyed gaze. "Are you saying that you're planning to go to Mistral?" Ruby nodded.

"Yes Jaune," She replied. "I am." A fierce look entered her eyes. "I have to do this. I won't let anyone stop me."

"Stop you!" Nora exclaimed. "We're coming with you!" There was a pause among the other three teenagers as Nora stood, posing with her fist raised dramatically into the air.

"Really?" Ruby squeaked excitedly, jumping up as well. Ren and Jaune looked at each other and simultaneously rolled their eyes. Even so, they were smiling as they stood.

"Really," Ren replied. "We're a team."

"We are a team." Jaune affirmed, and the joy in Ruby's smile was so infectious that before long they were all smiling. Then Jaune had an idea, and he drew his teammates attention with a ceremonial bow, followed by the flourish of his hand.

"Huntresses." Jaune began officiously. "Hunters, I give you Team Ranger!" A moment of silence, both surprised and reverent, pressed down upon them. Then Ruby huffed as she began to pout.

"But I wanted the name to be Junior!" she cried. Nora and Ren looked to each other while Ruby watched Jaune.

"Well, that is sort of cooler..." Jaune admitted thoughtfully, a smile growing on his face.

"Sort of!" Nora exclaimed, and then she proceeded to explain why it was the right name for their team. The newly minted teammates' discussion quickly devolved into a fierce back and forth as they argued and laughed together.

Jaune still missed Pyrrha, and he knew he always would. Even as Ren and Nora missed her. But now that he knew he could hold her close by remembering who she was, and living up to her example, he knew that to be heartbroken didn't have to be bitter forever. Someday, he would find that the memory of Pyrrha brought him joy, and then the hole in his heart would be a good thing, serving as a constant reminder of her presence. Nothing would ever be able to take that place, and that was something that Jaune was thankful for.

.

In the bullhead just forward of the new team, Glynda Goodwitch heard their excited babble and smiled to herself. She didn't know what they were talking about, or even how they had managed to come by their good spirits, but it lightened her heart to know that somehow, they had come through it all together.

 _Ozpin would be proud_ , she thought. And she felt a little more hopeful.

* * *

Author's note: Please leave a review and give me some feedback! I would love to know how the story could be improved.


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